Clashes erupt inside Idlib prison as Iran warns against any attack on Syria

Amid ongoing bloodshed in Syria and increasing numbers of refugees, 30,000 of whom have recently arrived in Jordan, according to the U.N., Iran announced that it would consider any attack on Syria “an attack on itself,” Ali Akbar Velayati, an aide to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was quoted as saying on Saturday.         

"Syria has a very basic and key role in the region for promoting firm policies of resistance ... For this reason an attack on Syria would be considered an attack on Iran and Iran's allies," said Ali Akbar Velayati.       

Earlier, U.S. ambassador to Syria Robert Ford slammed Iran considering that its role in the Syrian conflict is “not useful.”      

In turn, the White House announced that Washington and Paris share the same security fears including Syria.     

For its part, Turkey considered that the latest speech delivered by Syrian President Bashar Assad "has shut the door for new proposals to solve the Syrian crisis", considering that the coming period will witness a diplomatic movement. “The current diplomatic stalemate is very shameful.      

On the field     

On the field, fierce clashes erupted between pro-regime troops and opposition fighters who stormed Idlib’s central prison without taking control over it. “They manage to free over 100 inmates,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported, adding that 10 inmates were killed in the process.      

In contrast, SANA reported that pro-regime troops killed terrorists in Idlib, destroying their hideouts in the area surrounding Wadi al-Dayf and Maaret al-Numan. In addition to this, clashes erupted on the Idlib-Salqin road and terrorists were killed in Aleppo, Damascus Reef and Homs Reef.

Meanwhile, in a statement, NATO announced that the first battery out of 6 Patriot missile batteries to be deployed by NATO in Turkey to protect its border with Syria from possible attacks, has become operational today.


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REUTERS/LBCI